Holes makes us whole

Its amazing how people have grown to so easily associate the inadequacies in life as “holes” that needs to be filled up and plugged. If you have not been passing your Math papers, you ought to be putting in more effort. Do more papers. Practice more. Having troubles with public speaking? Go attend a workshop. Go join the toastmasters.

Practical reasons aside (like passing school), what is the end state we are looking at here? If someone were to have filled up all the holes in their lives, (no sexual innuendos here) then what does that make of them? Ever so perfect they may be but there is a plainness in perfection, the dull acknowledgement of the expectancy in flawlessness. Like it or not, we are defined by our flaws but that need not be as bad as we make it to be.

Someone once told me that life (when I was a student) is like a barrel of water. Your grades are represented by the amount of water it holds. It does not matter how good you are at all your favourite subjects, and how plenty the water would be as a result. If there are holes in the barrel, much like your weak subjects, water will always leak out. Hence, it would always be wise to fix these holes, even if its harder to do so than continuing to fill the barrel with water. As I grew up I learnt to realise that yes, indeed there will always be holes. These holes can no doubt be fixed and plugged. I took H2 Chemistry against every ounce of my will because it was the “more practical approach”, what with all the courses in university requiring one to at least take up H2 Chem. In a sense, I drilled a hell of a big hole in my barrel. But flaws define us. They really do, because humans are themselves inherently flawed in picking out the worst of everything. We spot mistakes as easily as we ignore the perfectly executed, taken for granted like the beat of the heart. Because we focus on the mistakes, they form the first layer of one’s impression. Holes give rise to the human character and fallibility of the spirit, it makes us believable. It is the blank canvas that will be painted by our actions; how we treat the holes that we have. And more often than not, isn’t that how great characters come into being, not by the merits of their achievements but by the overcoming of the obstacles that lay in their way?

And perhaps, on an idealistic note – we need holes in our lives for the people around us to fill up. Two halves make a whole and it takes courage to accept that one is imperfect. It will take even more courage to accept the notion that you will be dependent on another being for the fulfilment of the self.